


to love what is mortal

by strangerthanfiction87



Category: Sense8 (TV), 学園アリス | Gakuen Alice
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Very Minor Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-12 16:22:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5672464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangerthanfiction87/pseuds/strangerthanfiction87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wolfgang Bogdanow is the resident bad boy at The Academy, a university unlike any other. Kala Dandekar is the new student struggling to stay afloat in the male-dominated world of medical magic. Thrown together by chance, they navigate the trials and tribulations of growing up in a world where magic is the reality and sane is completely relative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

Kala had already been on her shift for over 40 hours, suturing a nasty head wound on an octogenarian and only vaguely able to remember a time when she was well-rested, when the alert came in over the intercom.

“Attention. All Healers to report to the control center immediately. I repeat, all Healers to report to control at once.”

She froze in the middle of a stitch, glancing around. “I need someone to take over here!” she called out. All around her, the room bustled with activity, doctors and nurses spurred into motion by the announcement. Her request went ignored in the chaos.   _Damn_ _it_. Kala took a deep breath and forced a smile for her patient. “I’ll be right back, Mr. Howard, hold on a minute.”

Stripping off her latex gloves, Kala stood and glanced around the room. She spotted a doctor filling out charts and tapped his shoulder. “Excuse me, they just paged me to control, can you take over for me?”

Reluctantly, he looked up from his work and glanced over to her patient. “That isn’t really my job, miss, you’ll have to find a nurse to finish that up.”

Kala stared at him. She had been on her feet for nearly two days without sleep now, her feet hurt, and it felt as though her eyeballs have begun to shrivel. “It’s sutures,” she said. “Look, I really have to leave, and it’ll take less than a minute to finish up.”

He frowned. “Listen, miss--Dandekar, is it?” he said, glancing at her tag. “I don’t know what you were expecting, but at the Academy, we don’t give special treatment to your kind, and we don’t make allowances for sloppy work.” He looked her deliberately up and down, and Kala felt herself begin to flush with rage and embarrassment. Indignant, she opened her mouth to retort--

“Do what she says, Jameson.”

To her relief, Kala turned to see the attending doctor behind her, fresh out of the operating room. Doctor Emily Cardenas raised her eyebrows. “Well?”

Jameson sputtered. “But--Doctor Cardenas--!”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said briskly. “You’ll do whatever I need you to do while you’re on my rotation. She’s needed elsewhere, now get to it.”

Mouth pursed like he’d bitten into a lemon, Jameson shot a dirty look at Kala and moved to take over for her.

She turned to Kala, an eyebrow arched. “Go on then, Dandekar.”

“Thank you,” Kala said, utterly relieved. Doctor Cardenas nodded, waving her off, and Kala took off for control. Emily Cardenas was one of only four other female surgeons at the Academy, and the only mundane doctor who had made it to attending status. Brilliant, cool, and always in control, she was the kind of doctor Kala had dreamed of becoming when she left Mumbai for the Academy three months ago. Even without the gift of healing, Doctor Cardenas was among the most respected doctors at the Academy.

Kala turned the corner at a dead sprint, barrelling through the double doors and nearly crashing into another Healer as she hurried into the control center. Muttering an apology, she quickly took her place among the small group, straightening her back and trying to project a confidence she didn’t really have when Healer Porrisdottir’s cool gaze swept over her. Instantly, the room fell silent.

“I’ve just received an urgent call from Professor Maliki requesting,” she said, and Kala could practically hear the sharp intake of breath from every Healer in the room. “There’s been an incident in the V Class. I’ve been informed of several burn injuries and possible broken bones. The situation is currently ongoing, but we should prepare for the worst.” Her mouth thinned. “No glory seekers today. Do not hesitate to call for assistance should you find yourself in such a position. Do not allow any mundane near them. They have been ordered to stay clear, but I want no slip ups, and I will hold you responsible for them. I hardly need to remind you of the consequences to such stupidity. Am I understood?”

Nods of assent and muttered “yes ma’am”s all through the room.

“Good,” Healer Porrisdottir said. “Let’s go.” She turned and pushed the doors to the emergency room open, her lab coat flapping around her heels.

Bewildered, Kala hurried to catch up. Class V? She had never heard of them before. Like all other department heads, Healer Porrisdotti wore an armband, emblazoned with a stylistic “H” signifying her status. Kala herself had one embroidered on her lab coat that marked her as a student Healer, but she had never before seen someone wearing a “V.”

“Hernando,” she whispered, catching her fellow Healer by the arm. “What is the V Class?”

Hernando flinched under her touch. He glanced anxiously around the ER, distracted, and adjusted his glasses. “I forget that you’re new to this,” he muttered. “The V Class is...well. They’re special.”

“Special?”

He made a face. “Officially, it’s filled with students who have particularly volatile abilities. They have to attend extra classes in addition to whatever else they’re studying.”

“But unofficially…?” Kala prompted.

Hernando raised his eyebrows and lowered his voice. “Unofficially? The Academy owns their asses. Most of them are tagged with cold iron to keep them in line whenever they leave campus.”

Kala’s eyes widened. Cold iron was rare. Incredibly difficult to produce and ridiculously expensive, only the military and the police had easy access to the substance, and it was used for only the worst magical criminals.

“They’re...they’re not _dangerous_ , are they?” she asked incredulously.

Hernando opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by the sound of sirens wailing the arrival of their patients. Two paramedics burst through the door, pushing a stretcher with an groaning dark-haired man lying on it, the entire left side of his face swollen and bloody. Another man strode grimly alongside the stretcher, shirt torn but otherwise unharmed.

“What do we have?” Healer Porrisdottir asked briskly.

“Male, early twenties, first degree burns, broken arm, and possible broken ribs--” the paramedic rattled off.

“Definitely broken,” his friend interrupted. American, Kala realized. “He was kicked by a steel-toed boot, and the burns are magical--”

“Get him to room two!” Porrisdottir barked. “Herrera, Freyre, Tapley, you’re with him. Stabilize and don’t take risks with the burns.”

Kala felt, rather than saw, Hernando’s eyes widen and his shock. He broke away from her, reaching for the man on the stretcher. “Lito,” he gasped, too quiet for anyone else to hear. “Oh, god--”

He seemed utterly paralyzed, his eyes tracking the stretcher as they wheeled the man away. Kala shook him. “Hernando,” she said urgently. Then, when he didn’t seem to hear-- “ _Hernando_. Come on! You have to go!”

He shook himself like a wet dog, scrubbing at his face. “Yes. Yes. Okay, I got it, I’m good.” He straightened his shoulders and patted her on the back, forcing a smile onto his face. “I’ll see you later.” He turned and strode down the hallway.

Kala watched him go for a moment, curiosity getting the better of her. As far as she knew, Hernando lived alone in a studio apartment off campus and had no family in Berlin. She couldn’t help but feel a little hurt that he had never mentioned his--flatmate? brother? boyfriend?-- to her in the three months since she’d joined the Healing program. _Well_ , she thought grimly. _I_ _suppose_ _everyone_ _has_ _their_ _secrets_. She was hardly one to talk, she hadn’t spoken to her family since she’d left Mumbai, and Hernando was thus far her closest friend. Hernando, who, it appeared, had more to him than met the eye.

She mentally shook herself. Not the time for this, she told herself. Two more stretchers with victims came barrelling in as she watched, and Healer Porrisdottir directed three more of her classmates to rush to their aid. Now, only Kala and two other Healers remained. Disappointed, Kala resisted the urge to sigh. She shifted her weight, itching to have something to do.

“Take it as a compliment, Dandekar.”

Startled, Kala glanced over to Healer Porrisdottir, who wasn’t even looking in her direction but watching the entrance with narrowed eyes. “I’m sorry, ma’am?”

“Maliki hasn’t shown up yet,” she said, ignoring Kala. “And if I know that man, he wouldn’t have called for something as minor as what we’ve seen so far.” She looked very cross, and Kala wondered if perhaps Healer Porrisdottir had a bit of a--a past, with this Professor Maliki. “When he does show, I want the best on his case. I need you on your game today, Dandekar. Understood?”

Kala pressed her lips together to stifle a smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good,” she snorted. “Don’t let me down.” She stilled suddenly, brow furrowed. “What in the..?”

Kala could feel it, too. It pulsed in the back of her mind like a beacon of light. Magic. She tensed, reacting instinctively to the massive pulses that swept through the building. There was a split second in which she knew it was all about to go horribly, horribly wrong--

“ _Get_ _down!_ ” Healer Porrisdottir screamed, and the front door blew open. Kala dove to the ground face first, covering her head and neck. Shattered glass from the sliding doors flew everywhere, and she felt the sharp sting of shards slicing her arms and back. Heart hammering, she dared to glance up.

The emergency room was in ruins. Rubble from the blown-up door piled everywhere, and Kala could see several doctors and nurses on the ground, cowering away from the blast. Her ears rung from the force of the explosion, and she stumbled to her feet, looking wildly around.

The scene before her looked like something out of a bad action movie, Kala thought hysterically. Healer Porrisdottir slumped unconscious on the ground beside her, her arm bent at an unnatural angle and burns covering her side. A tall, dark-skinned man stood in the midst of the rubble, looking none the worse for wear, while a boy her age stared him down from what used to be the entrance of the emergency room. His eyes were strangely blank, as though he was sleepwalking.

“Come now, Wolfgang,” the older man said carefully. “Surely you don’t want to do this here? This is a hospital, after all.”

“ _Verpiss_ _dich_!” he hissed, and with a sweep of his arm, a wall of fire roared to life between the two men.

Yelping, Kala scrambled away from the flames, dragging Healer Porrisdottir with her.  She glanced warily upwards, just in time to see the boy lunge for the man. Neither of them seem to have noticed her. _Focus_ , _Kala. Healer Porrisdottir, think of her._

She took deep shuddering breaths and forced her gift to the surface, shoving aside the terror. Slowly but surely, her hands began to glow the telltale green of healing magic. Breathing through the fear, she pressed them lightly to Healer Porrisdottir’s side, watching as the angry red blisters smoothed out into new skin. _Faster, faster._ She can hear the sounds of cursing and the whoosh of newly ignited fire from behind her.

From there, she moved on to her arm. Kala gripped the limb and forced the broken bone back into its proper position with a sickening crack, grimly relieved that at least her mentor was unconscious for this. Once she realigned the bone, Kala allowed the magic to flow again, rejoining the bone and healing the torn tissue. She glances behind her and froze.

It was one of the most simultaneously beautiful and terrifying things that she had ever seen. The older man moved like a boxer, almost casual in his movements, and he remained perpetually on the defensive, dodging the boy’s deadly strikes with apparent ease. Still, his expression was grim, and he looked particularly wary of the cursed fire. He either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, use his own powers on his student.

The sentiment clearly did not go both ways. The boy moved like a lightning strike: ruthless, fast, and without regard for bystanders. When it became apparent that his opponent wouldn’t engage with him, he slashed his arm through the air, and flames roared to life around the entire perimeter of the room. Shouts and screams erupted from all around them, and Kala dropped to the ground, eyes burning from the smoke. She took shallow breaths, trying to conserve her oxygen.

The older man’s eyes widened with fear for the first time, and in a single swift motion he pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired straight into the ceiling pipes. Alarms blared and the sprinklers came on, soaking the room with water, and the flames around the room began to sputter. At nearly the same time, his student took advantage of the opening and struck. The man twisted to the side but grunted in pain as a thin stream of fire sliced through his side. He stumbled, falling to the ground, and Kala watched in horror as the boy moved in to finish him.

From behind the boy’s back, Kala made eye contact with the man, and there was a moment of terrifying clarity in which she knew exactly what she had to do. She lunged forward and crashed into the boy, bringing him to the floor.

Snarling, he struggled with her, easily breaking her hold and slamming her to the ground. This close to him, she could see the utter blankness in his eyes, the pupils dilated so wide they appeared black. _I am about to die_ , Kala realized, her mind going blank with utter terror.

_“No!”_

A flash of bright green flooded her vision, and the boy hissed in pain, collapsing onto her. Kala shoved him off of her, limbs shaky and wired with strange energy. She staggered to her feet, trembling as the older man limped over and deftly looped a silver dog tag over his student’s neck. The flames, already weakened by the sudden downpour, instantly guttered out.

The boy was...a mess. Blood soaked through his clothes at an alarming rate, which was strange because the fabric itself was whole and untouched. His arm bent at an unnatural angle, and he clutched his side as though it had been hurt as well. His furious blue eyes met Kala’s and although he was clearly in too much pain to speak or even move, she flinched away from him. His teacher moved quickly, pulling a slim hypodermic needle from inside his jacket and emptying its contents into the boy’s arm. Instantly, his eyes rolled back into his skull, and the man eased him into recovery position.

“Oh, dear,” the man said quietly. His eyes flicked to Healer Porrisdottir, still lying a few feet away. Whose healed injuries happened to perfectly match the ones now plaguing his student. He turned his thoughtful gaze onto Kala, who was trying very hard not to have a panic attack. “What _have_ you done?”

  
  
  



	2. Two

The coffee was terrible. For lack of anything better to do, Kala took another sip out of the white Styrofoam cup before immediately putting it back down, making a face. Grainy and lukewarm at best, the liquid roiled uncomfortably in her stomach. She stared down into the table, wondering just how she had wound up here.

The past hour had been a blur of shouting and commotion. After tranquilizing his student, the professor had taken immediate charge of the situation, and a cadre of hospital security guards had bundled off Kala to this white, nondescript room in which she now waited. What for, she wasn’t sure.

While she hadn’t tried the door, she somehow knew that it would be locked from the outside. The room was too warm, and Kala tugged at her sweater, mentally wincing at the rust-colored stains in the cloth. The boy had bled so quickly and profusely...

The door handle turned, and Kala’s head snapped up. The door swung open, revealing the man from before who was carrying a thick folder. He sat down across from her at the table and gave her a wan smile.

“Hello, Kala,’ he said. “I imagine you must have quite a few questions.”

Kala regarded him suspiciously. “Who are you?”

“A good starting point,” he said. “I am Professor Jonas Maliki, and I serve as the academic advisor and department head for all Class V students. I’m here to clear your release. I do apologize for the circumstances of our meeting.” He looked rather grim. “I am afraid that we did not show ourselves in best light today.”

“What will happen to him?” Kala asked hesitantly. “Your student?”

Professor Maliki sighed. “Wolfgang is currently in intensive care. My student may have his flaws, but he is not one to put innocents in the line of fire. The doctors have informed me that they have found a large amount of Allucinatus in his bloodstream.”

“The nightmare drug?” Kala asked, surprised. The magical drug was not a popular one, for obvious reasons. Only junkies and gangs bought the substance.

His mouth thinned. “It seems that someone dosed him with the drug before he came to class, knowing the...explosive effect it would have.”

“Oh,” Kala said, stunned. “That is...that is quite terrible.”

“Indeed, Kala,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “But that is a matter for another time. Now, I am afraid, I have a few questions for you. Were you previously aware of the nature of your gift?”

Kala bit her lip. “No. I don’t understand what happened.”

“I took the liberty of pulling your charts from the last week,” Jonas said, pushing the folder across the table. “Go ahead. Take a look.”

Warily, Kala flipped it open.

“’On Monday, you healed a patient with a deep laceration to the right upper arm. On Wednesday, you had a gunshot wound to the shoulder and on Thursday, you had multiple stab wounds.” He paused meaningfully. “And, of course, an hour ago, Irsa’s broken arm and the burns to the ribs.”

Kala stared at the page. It was true. She could remember healing each of those patients.

“Each one of these injuries has now reappeared on my student,” he said. “Every magical healing that you performed from the last week. I supposed I should be glad that your superiors seem determined to keep you on relatively low-level cases. I doubt Wolfgang would be alive if you had been responsible for anything more serious.”

“Is he—“ Kala asked and stopped. She swallowed. “Will he be all right?” There is a strange, sucking feeling in her gut. She remembered the bright scarlet, spreading like wine across a tablecloth. _Am I a murderer?_

“I’m told he’ll make a full recovery within the next few days,” Professor Maliki said, watching her carefully.

“Oh.” Kala breathed, relief flooding her. “I’m glad.”

“As am I,” he said. He appeared to weigh his next words carefully. “At any rate, it would appear that there is rather more to your gift than we first thought. As such, the Academy has decided to change your official designation to a V Class student. ”

“What?” Kala burst out. “Professor—that can’t be right! I’m a healer, I’ve never been anything else—”

“Kala,” he said gently. “You have awoken a complete new aspect of your magic, one whose capabilities, I might add, are completely unknown to us at this point in time. You have no control, no concept of how to utilize this gift.” Regretfully, he added, “I’m afraid you have no choice in this matter. Academy policy demands that all users of volatile magic receive special training in their gifts. If you do not comply, you cannot be a student here and, as I’m sure you know, international law dictates that you cannot leave the Academy before finishing your education.”

It was true. The International Federation of Magic specified that all users of magic complete their training up to the university level. Kala could even recognize the necessity of it. She had almost killed someone today. _What if it happened again?_ It was childish to pretend that she was in control.

She took a deep breath. “All right,” she said resignedly. “But please, no more explosions.”

Professor Maliki smiled faintly at her. “I’ll try to keep them to a minimum.” He leaned back in his chair. “But you should know,” he said casually. “You have had more success in reigning Wolfgang in one day than I have in the last two years. Perhaps I should be asking you for advice.”

Terrifyingly enough, Kala genuinely had no idea whether or not he was joking.

 

The weekend passed in a haze of worry, which was occasionally punctuated by panic. Temporarily suspended from healing duties and her rotations until she proved able to control her newfound abilities, Kala polished off a month’s worth of backlogged paperwork in bursts of frenetic energy for lack of anything else to do.

By the time Sunday night rolled around, Kala could hardly wait for Monday to arrive. She was dying by inches just sitting around and fretting over her first day in the V Class. After what she was coming to refer to as “The Incident” in her mind, she had tried to speak to Hernando, only for him to somehow get away each time.

She tried not to mind his avoidance of her company, but it was hard not to feel a little hurt. The other Healers in her class, already resentful of her female-ness and the fact that her transfer into the program meant more competition for them, had unanimously decided to ostracize her, with the result being that Kala now ate lunch alone at her desk.

Not that this was so different, Kala thought glumly. The other Healers had never been very friendly. The only difference was that before her admittance to the V Class, Hernando at least would have kept her company.

Now that she saw how the entire campus seemed to treat those marked as volatile, she couldn’t quite feel it in her heart to be angry with him. Three months of friendship with the transfer student from Mumbai wasn’t worth the career suicide of associating with a Volatile Healer.

It made her wonder just what the members of the V Class were like if they inspired so much fear and suspicion in the rest of the student body. These thoughts generally led to the memory of furious blue eyes and the sudden inability to breathe and blinding panic and then Kala decided she didn’t need to be thinking about such things.

Worried and more than a bit manic, Kala spent her Sunday night pacing through her tiny studio apartment, biting at her fingernails and wondering not for the first time if she hadn’t just been better off appeasing her family and staying in Mumbai. A few times, she summoned up the courage to peek into her closet and contemplate Monday’s outfit only to be overcome by panic every time.

Finally, exhausted by her own worrying and resigned to the fact that nothing she owned was suitable for the first day of class with several people the government had deemed too dangerous to live in normal society without special instruction, Kala toppled into her bed, muttering sleepy prayers to the little statue of Ganesha on her nightstand until she fell asleep.

 

The morning dawned bright and cold, Kala’s breath leaving little trails of steam as she huffed and puffed her way to class. Tiny snowflakes drifted from the sky, and Kala was nearly late to Anatomy and Physiology watching one melt on her open palm, the delicate lattice crystal pattern dissolving into her dark skin. Even three months away from the searing heat of India, Berlin in December never failed to amaze her.

She had agreed to meet with Professor Maliki at three after all her healing classes had finished outside the hospital, and he was there when she arrived.

“Hello, Kala,” he greeted her. “How are you?” He wore an expensive-looking camel coat and a dark suit underneath. He looked every inch the European gentleman and if she didn’t know better, Kala would have thought him perfectly harmless.

“Good, thank you,” Kala said politely. “And you?”

He gestured for her to follow him, and they began to walk. “I find myself rather busy of late. Our little incident at the hospital on Friday did not go unnoticed by the Academy. They were most displeased.” He smiled ruefully. “But that is not for you to worry about. Ah, here we are.”

Kala stared. They were standing outside a graduate research building. “Professor--?”

Professor Maliki either did not hear or chose to ignore her incredulity as he strode into the building, flashing an ID card at the security guard. “We’ll get you one of these soon,” he said, pressing the down button for the elevator.

Once inside, Kala glanced around nervously. “This isn’t like in the movies where we go to a floor that no one else knows exists, right?”

“Oh, no,” Professor Maliki said. “Nothing so dramatic. The graduate student researchers all know that we’re here. I think they rather enjoy being able to say that their building is HQ for the V Class.” He smiled and raised his wrist to what looked like a scanner. _Beep._ The button for the basement lit up, and the elevator began to move.

“Chip,” he explained to her. “All V-class magic users have one. We’ll get you one as well.” He glanced over at Kala, her eyes bugged out, and hurried to reassure her. “It’s harmless, really, its only function is to allow you access to our private training rooms.” He sighed. “Truth be told, some of the Academy officials wanted to implant us with something a little more sinister for a while there. Fortunately, it has not yet come to that.”

 _Harmless._ Clearly, Professor Maliki had a very definition of the word than she did.

The elevator stopped. “Shall we?” he asked.

The doors opened, and Kala blinked, transfixed by the strangeness of it all.

The entire basement was circular and larger than Kala had expected, filled with all sorts of eclectic equipment. The far side of the room had several large silvery machines hooked up to several slim, expensive-looking laptops that hummed and beeped like they were alive.

A blond woman with headphones was typing furiously into one of them, glancing up from the screen only when Professor Maliki stepped into the room. To her surprise, Kala recognized the handsome dark-haired man sitting next to her from the hospital. He had his arm bound in a sling and looked pale and drawn, but he and the woman seemed to be chatting quite cheerfully.

The next section of the room strongly resembled a library. Desks and plump cushions sprawled around several tall bookshelves. A slim Korean girl rested casually against a comfortable-looking beanbag chair next to an animated black boy who seemed to be telling a story, judging by the frequent gesturing. Every so often, a book would drift, seemingly on its own, from the pile by the feet to the bookshelf or vice versa. One of them was a telepath, Kala realized belatedly.

Also sitting by them was a pale girl with bleached hair, who seemed to be only half-listening to the others. Every so often, she glanced anxiously over to the glass walls of the training room on the other side of the space, which was filled with a mixture of gym equipment and strange machinery that Kala had never seen before. It took by far the most space in the basement. The other man from the hospital, the American, was in there lifting what looked like some very heavy weights with great fervor.

“Hello, everyone,” Professor Maliki said quietly. Instantly, every eye in the room swiveled to them. Kala felt herself shrinking under the spotlight. “I’m sure you’ve all heard by now about the incident on Friday. This is Kala Dandekar, a third year in the Healing program. She’ll be joining us indefinitely.”

Kala winced as she faced the speculative gazes of six strangers. “Hello,” she said, trying not to sound like the horrifically shy person she was. She tried again. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

The American boy was the first to react. He smiled encouragingly at Kala. “Hi, I’m Will,” he said, shaking her hand. “I remember you from the hospital.”

“I do not,” the dark-haired boy said glumly, a faint accent tinting his English. “But I do not remember very much from that day in any case. The painkillers tend to do that.”

The girl with the headphones rolled her eyes. “This drama queen is Lito,” she said. Another American, Kala realized. Her voice was pleasantly husky, and she grinned at Kala conspiratorially. “He had the misfortune of being in the immediate vicinity of Wolfgang when the Allucinatus kicked in. I’m Nomi, by the way.”

The black boy bounded up to Kala and shook her hand enthusiastically. “Hello! I am Capheus,” he said cheerfully. “This is Sun, and that is Riley.” He gestured effusively to the Korean girl and the girl with the bleached hair. “We have been expecting you!”

“Though not in quite an explosive manner,” Sun said dryly.

Upon seeing Kala’s confusion, Capheus hastened to explain. “Riley has been seeing you for months now!”

Riley smiled at Kala, ducking her head. “Hello,” she said quietly. “It’s good to see you in person.”

“You are Precognitive,” Kala said, realization dawning on her. She tried to keep the awe from her voice. Precogs were incredibly rare, and she had only ever read about the ability before. “You...saw me?”

Riley hesitated for a brief moment, and she glanced at Professor Maliki. “I did,” she said carefully. “Though I did not know who you were or how you would come to join us.” She half-shrugged. “It is an imprecise ability. The future is not written in stone.”

“Riley tends to see danger,” Professor Maliki said. “It was she who warned us that Wolfgang had been compromised.”

Riley’s mouth twisted into a tiny frown. “I’m only sorry I couldn’t give you any more notice. It happened so quickly...it must have been a snap decision, professor, or I would have seen it well in advance.”

His mouth slanted into a grim line. “No apology is necessary, Riley,” he said. “As for the rest of you, you can be certain that I will be investigating this incident.” He sighed. “But moving on, I’m sure you’re all curious about what I have planned today. My time has unfortunately been constrained by this issue, and I’d like you all to help Kala adjust to becoming part of our class and have her start to test the limits of her abilities.” He looked apologetic. “I realize this is a great deal to ask, but until Kala learns to control her abilities, she is a potential danger to everyone she comes into contact with.”

“Of course,” Will said instantly. “I can work with her, she won’t be able to hurt me—“

“Don’t be an idiot, Gorski.”

The German accent was unmistakable. A chill went down her spine, and Kala turned around. Wolfgang leaned against the wall, his arm bound in a sling and looking rather worse for wear. Even injured, something about the relaxed control in his posture screamed danger.

“She’s an Elemental,” he said, watching Will almost lazily. “Meaning your shields aren’t worth shit.”

Will visibly bristled. “It’s nice to see you, too,” he said grimly. “Apology accepted, by the way. You know? For beating Lito up and trying to kill me? In case you’d forgotten.”

Wolfgang’s eyes narrowed, but before he could retort, Professor Maliki interjected.

“Gentlemen. Restrain yourselves.” Although he did not raise his voice, there was an undercurrent of steel in his voice, and the two boys subsided.

Nomi leaned over to Kala, whose head was spinning with the sudden information overload. “Will is a Psychic class,” she whispered conspiratorially. “I mean, most common type, right? He generates force fields, which is cool, but the reason he’s in the V class is because they figured out his shields nullify all magic.”

Kala nodded, the scientist in her kicking into overdrive. Even discounting Wolfgang’s claim that he had resonated with her magic, it made sense. Healing was technically a subclass of Elemental Manipulation, and what she was doing could technically be considered reverse-healing.

“Unfortunately, it seems he is correct, Will,” Professor Maliki said. “I take it you sensed the Resonance between your own magic and hers, Wolfgang?”

“It would be difficult to forget,” he said dryly.

“In that case, I’m afraid your shields would be quite useless against Kala,” Professor Maliki continued, “As we’ve seen, they do not function against either Lito or Wolfgang, and I would rather not land any more of my students into the ER within the span of a week.”

Wolfgang made a noise that could have been a snicker.

“All things considered, while I still want you all to pitch in, I will be assigning Wolfgang to work with Kala,” Professor Maliki said unperturbedly.

Wolfgang immediately stopped snickering. “What?”

“You are our only Elemental,” Professor Maliki said, and although he looked as calm as ever, Kala could have sworn he was enjoying himself. “A very talented one at that. And you are the only student currently lacking a training partner. It seems only logical.”

Wolfgang looked ready to protest, but Professor Maliki cut smoothly across him. “You also very recently destroyed the Academy Hospital emergency room.”

 _“How is that my fault?”_ he demanded. “I was drugged!”

“I recognize that you were under the influence at the time, but you must admit that it was still your doing,” Professor Maliki sighed. “And I am afraid that it matters little to the Academy that you were not in control of your mental faculties. I must be seen as punishing you somehow, Wolfgang, and there are far worse ways to do it.”

The German glowered at Professor Maliki but made no further comment, apparently resigned to his fate. Kala felt a jolt of dismay as she stared at the angry, blond man who was apparently to be her personal trainer for an indefinite period. The feeling seemed to be utterly mutual, judging by the irritated set of his jaw.

“Well, then, now that that’s settled,” Professor Maliki said, pushing determinedly forward. He smiled benevolently at Kala. “I look forward to seeing your progress in a week.”

Behind him, Sun and Kala exchanged a loaded look, and she felt, rather than heard, the wry thought that drifted from the Korean girl and into her mind: _If you are both still alive by then._


End file.
